Ebola Czar: ‘The CDC is a National Treasure’

It was talking points galore from President Obama’s Ebola czar Ron Klain Sunday morning on CBS’ Face the Nation.

Speaking with guest host Major Garrett, Klain called the Centers for Disease Control a “national treasure” and said the American people should be “very proud” of its work with Ebola.

Garrett began with a hard-hitting question to the czar: “This week we had an event at CDC — someone might have been exposed to live Ebola virus. What can you tell us about that and was this a pretty significant botch awfully late in the game?”

With a clear of his throat, Klain tore into his prepared speech and laid it on thick:

Well, it’s obviously unacceptable to have any mishandling of Ebola materials. Doctor Frieden, the director of CDC, has promised a full review and a report within four weeks. But I also think it’s important to keep this in context: First of all, thanks to the other protocols and procedures in place, there was no risk to the public, no risk to the CDC campus generally, only one technician was exposed. So far, she’s showing no signs of having the disease. She’s being monitored every day.

Going for broke, Klain’s talking points became sickeningly sweet:

You know, I visited this lab on the CDC campus in October, they’ve been studying Ebola there for 20 years without a single incident. They’ve processed more than 10,000 Ebola samples during this current crisis. They’ve saved thousands of lives. The CDC is a national treasure. People around the world look to us for leadership for the kind of leadership they provided on the Ebola response. The American people should be very proud of the job that’s being done in Atlanta by Dr. Frieden and the team at the CDC.